1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the structure of a lid of a battery chamber in a camera, and more particularly to the structure of a lid for closing a battery chamber defined between an electronic flash part and a film chamber in a camera casing.
2. Description of Related Art
A camera disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 7-295048 has a battery chamber defined at the rear of an electronic flash part arranged at the upper front corner of a camera casing. The longitudinal direction of the battery chamber is parallel to the film feeding direction. A battery is loaded into the battery chamber by opening a battery chamber lid, which is openably attached to the side of the camera casing. When the battery chamber lid is closed, the battery chamber lid appears to be a part of the camera casing. The camera also has an electronic flash part that is fixed in the camera casing.
In a well-known camera with a pop-up electronic flash part, the electronic flash part is arranged in an electronic flash housing, which is attached to the camera casing so that the electronic flash part can pivot from a recessed position to its operating position.
FIG. 4 shows a part of the top of a camera casing 1 of a conventional camera, which is provided with the pop-up electronic flash part. FIG. 5 is a partially sectional view of the camera casing 1. As shown in FIG. 4, a top face 2 of the camera casing 1 is cut off at widthwise side corners. An electronic flash housing 3 is arranged at the front side of the camera casing 1 and a battery chamber lid 4 is arranged at the rear side. In short, the electronic flash housing 3 is arranged opposite to the battery chamber lid 4 across a filler piece 5 formed in the top face 2.
The conventional camera has the following disadvantages. The filler piece 5 must be formed in the top face 2 of the camera casing 1, and this makes it difficult to manufacture the camera casing 1. Moreover, the strength of the filler piece 5 is unavoidably lowered, and this decreases the strength of the camera casing 1.